SP3A: The ageing egg

Aneuploidy does not alter cytoplasmic flow in mammalian oocytes, Karolina Kravarikova, Student, Research Centre of The Hospital of University of Montreal (CRCHUM), Canada

Karolina Kravarikova is a molecular biology master student at Université de Montréal in Canada. She joined the laboratory of Greg FitzHarris in 2021 and her research focuses on how incorrect chromosomal segregation affects cytoplasm and its contents in mouse oocytes. She is originally from Slovakia and has completed her BSc in the field of bioinformatics at the University of Linz, Austria. During her undergraduate she developed research in the laboratory of early mammalian developmental biology where her main focus was to identify and characterise novel transcripts in mouse preimplantation embryos.

Oocyte and cumulus cell cooperativity and metabolic plasticity under the direction of oocyte paracrine factors, Robert Gilchrist, NHMRC Investigator, University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia

Professor Robert Gilchrist is a research scientist and a NHMRC Investigator Fellow. He is Research Lead of the Discipline of Women’s Heath UNSW, and Head of Research of the Fertility & Research Centre (Royal Hospital for Women/UNSW), and is a Fellow of the Society for Reproductive Biology. He is or has been a Scientific Advisory Board member and/or consultant to; City Fertility, IVF Australia, CooperSurgical, Repromed, Fertility SA, Cook Medical, and the NZ Ministry of Health.

Professor Gilchrist is a reproductive biologist whose research encompasses basic and applied aspects of ovarian folliculogenesis, oocyte maturation and preimplantation embryo development. He conducts discovery research on oocyte-somatic cell interactions as a determinant of subsequent embryonic development. He has made important scientific contributions demonstrating that oocyte paracrine signalling determines cumulus cell differentiation and function. Dr Gilchrist also studies new biomarkers of oocyte quality. In addition, he leads a translation research program with the objectives of improving oocyte in vitro maturation (IVM) procedures for treatment of infertility and fertility preservation in women/girls with cancer. One of his IVM procedures is now in clinical practice. He has published 146 peer-reviewed papers including 27 reviews/chapters. He currently has an H-index of 51 with >8,500 citations [Scopus].

MRNA-miRNA interaction network in the ovarian follicle reveals miRNA target genes crucially involved in the regulation of cell apoptosis Bushra T Mohammed, Researcher and Lecturer, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Duhok, Iraq

Oxidative phosphorylation genes alteration by insulin resistance or sensitivity in cumulus cells of the PCOS patients Seyed Omid Reza Mousavi, Researcher, Royan institute for reproductive biomedicine, Tehran, Iran

Seyed Omid Reza Mousavi completed his bachelor of sciencedegree in the field of biotechnology at Yazd Azad University. Also, he has master degree in genetics and his thesis project was focusing on cellular and molecular interactions of spermatozoa with fallopian tube epithelial cells which was performed at Royan institute, an Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR) in Iran. Since his graduation, he has worked at Reproductive Clinical Research Laboratory in the same institute for two years.